Paradise Lost
by Tamahou
Summary: A mysterious organisation, an impending disaster, two enemies thrown together in a new bid to save the world. Mild shonen ai. RenoCloud
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 does not belong to author of fanfiction as follows below. No profit is made from this work. (sadly) 

Warning!!!: This fanfiction may eventually contain Shonen ai. 

Paradise Lost 

Prologue

Here we may reign secure, and in my choice 

To reign is worth ambition though in hell: 

Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven. 

- John Milton, "Paradise Lost"

Sand gritted under his boots as he strolled languidly but purposefully to the bar. He did not usually drink but today, he felt the sudden need for some alcohol and in the middle of the day too. He had a short but brutal moment of panic that perhaps he was turning into an alcoholic but it passed. He woke up today feeling empty inside and now he wanted to fill himself with some of the burning liquid and perhaps, just for a day, forget about himself, forget about forgotten memories if ever such a thing was needed or possible. Life was such a drag after all that excitement even though at that time, he wanted more than anything to be able to get out of it all. 

It was then that he met an old enemy again. They weren't really enemies of each other towards the end but then, when it was the end of the world, or nearly so, one simply did not have the presence of mind nor the time to bear grudges. For a moment, Cloud watched impassively at the bunch of people who had exploded out of the bar engaged in a vicious brawl. Three large burly men against one thin redhead, the odds of the fight seemed uneven but when said red head was an ex-Turk, the informed bets would be on the red head. Cloud had not recognized him at once as he was not wearing his usual Turk uniform and he doesn't seem to be using his electro-rod thing but the fiery red hair and fighting skills was immediately identifying. Reno was throwing punches left and right, moving with unexpected grace among the large men, leaving a black eye here and a broken nose there. He didn't even bothered taking out his nightstick. With a roundhouse kick, Reno sent one of the guys with a strange tattoo on the nape of his neck slamming into the ground and with another well aimed uppercut, snapped another thug's neck backward with a horribly loud crack. 

Reno was holding very well with the odds of three against one. Indeed, he was sending the brutes sprawling and avoiding their attacks in a graceful but macabre dance. But suddenly, a look of surprise fleeted across Reno's face when he first caught sight of Cloud and then he grimaced as one of the brutes closed in behind him and things went downhill from there.

Cloud had in retrospect, no idea why he helped Reno but when the tide turned for the red head, Cloud had stepped in automatically. Perhaps, he was intrigued by Reno's sudden loss of dexterity and angered by the way the brutes closed in on Reno like vultures attacking a dying animal as he fumbled around like a drunk. Perhaps, it was fate that decreed he would lose an enemy today while gaining a friend. Perhaps it was just his 'hero' instinct, as some would call it. Whatever it was, Cloud had entered the fight almost automatically, his body moving before his mind grasped the significance of his action. The men scattered like rabbits within five minutes after Cloud swung his buster sword into the fray. 

Reno groaned from his position on the dusty floor as he regained consciousness a mere three minutes after he fell, he was trained to rouse as quickly as possible. Being a Turk, that one minute more of lying on the ground unmoving might mean the difference between life and death.  He felt incredibly dizzy and sleepy even though his left temple was throbbing in pain as someone's fist had found its mark, his whole body was starting to ache as the adrenaline wore off and he was starting to cough so badly that his whole body was thrown into spasms as he struggled to push himself up. He had been kneed in the stomach, not once but at least twice, he lost count after his mind blanked out in pain. In any case, the important point was that, now his guts felt like they were trying to escape from him after all the abuse they had suffered from both their master and his enemies. He coughed blood. Shit, now they were trying to escape through his mouth.

"Are you okay?"

Someone had asked Reno. It had been quite some time since he had been presented with that particular question although just a few months ago, he would hear them quite often. He had expected that question and had a standard nasty reply to it but when he tilted his head up, all he could mumble was, "Cloud Strife, of all people." 

He looked funny smirking like that, with blood flowing from a corner of his mouth, a bruise starting to blossom just above his left brow. Cloud was about to comment but Reno gave him no chance as his eyes rolled back and he started to fall backwards. Cloud moved in with his inhuman agility and grabbed Reno before he did more damage to himself. Strange, Reno should be stronger than this; he managed to escape from Avalanche after being beaten to a pulp during Sector Seven. But Cloud did not want to think about that now, the blood that he and Reno had shed was still as bright red as the silky strands that now flowed between his fingers.

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Hi, I am new to the FF7 fanfiction community though I am not new to writing fanfictions. I had never played the game itself beyond the first 10 minutes so I need a lot of help on the verification of story details. English is also not my native language so I really will appreciate a beta reader. J I had an old id with fanfiction net but I lost my email and password….But in any case, those stories were written like four years ago so hopefully by now, I had improved. If you are interested, my old id is listed in my favourite authors section.  
  



	2. Enemies and Posse

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 does not belong to author of fanfiction as follows below. No profit is made from this work. (sadly) 

Warning!!!: This fanfiction may eventually contain Shonen ai. 

Chapter 1: Enemies and Posse 

He who would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from  
oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that  
will reach to himself. -Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809)

"Mission to capture target T1 failed." A monotonous male voice announced flatly, his lacklustre voice did not echo in the spacious laboratory but seemed trapped in the space around him. He doesn't seem to be speaking to anyone in particular. A dozen or so white robed scientists busied themselves peering through microscopes, tweaking machines, tearing things apart with care, putting things together unhurriedly, doing a dozen different things but all seemingly engrossed in their respective work. Most of the scientists did not even spare him a glance. Only a bespectacled female scientist looked up from her work and advanced towards him with slow mincing steps.

"That is only to be expected from the likes of you." Erina said irritably, her originally bookish but lovely features twisting into a mask of contempt. "But this failure can cost you. I can see from your attitude though, that you have some good news to cover for the lapse."

"As insightful as always, Doctor. My guys managed to hit target T1 with the experimental drug Xdrin9. Good news is, it works and pretty fast too. But as you can see, we didn't get him and that's because, surprisingly, someone came to his aid."

"Get to the point. I do not have all day."

"Impatience, Doctor, tsk tsk…. Anyway, I think you will be glad to know that the person who make off with our prey is a former Soldier and not just any Soldier. I believe you have heard of Cloud Strife of Avalanche fame?" The man smiled broadly, revealing impeccable rows of well-formed teeth that gleam dully in the fluorescent glow.

"Cloud Strife? I am pretty sure they are enemies."

"Nobody else goes about with that big buster sword and that -I can stab you to death with it- hairdo. In any case, one of my men had followed the duo. We can get the both of them if you are interested. At additional cost of course" 

"If you can." Erina's tone was scathing when she said this and then she just turned and marched back to her work without bothering to dismiss the man but he just jerked his shoulders and stride out, whistling.

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Reno woke up in an unfamiliar bed. The bed was so soft that he felt as if it was trying to swallow him up. As it was, he had to quite literally dig himself out. As the huge and heavy duvet fell away, he confirmed with his eyes what his skin had felt. He was naked and completely so. It was not the first time he woke up in unfamiliar places but rarely had he woken up naked and never in a guy's room as the décor of the room seemed to suggest. It was a spartan room with only a big buster sword decorating one wall and the colour scheme of the room being only black, white and grey. Then he remembered, even as a fiery lance of pain pierced through his head. Cloud Strife had rescued him from a bunch of thugs.

Reno did not know what to think of this development. He had not expected to lose to that all brawn and no brains trio, much less be saved by an ex enemy. The leader of that motley world saving band, no less! After he left the Turks, he had been at a loss of what to do with his life. Without the jobs provided by Shinra, dirty and more often than not, despicable though they may be but Reno had little other talents that were marketable other than fighting, killing and the same two things done in stealth. Not to mention now that Shinra was in ruins, the once feared Turks had became lost dogs without homes, scorned and hated by the masses. Reno had to forgo wearing his Turks uniform to avoid being picked upon. It was once a representation of status but now, it had become a symbol of defeat. 

For a long time, Reno had been wandering. He could not bear to stay at any one place for more than a month. He did not expect to ever see his past comrades again and he certainly did not meant to meet up with his ex enemies but it was strange that their paths should cross again. It might proved to be interesting after all. He had wondered about Cloud sometimes. The fact that he had deliberately let Cloud and his scrappy band pass him unchallenged weighed on his mind. That was the first and only time he had intentionally allowed a prey to escape unscathed and till this day, he wondered about it.

After taking deep breathes to steady the constant throbbing in his skull, Reno set about searching for his clothes and his saviour, preferably in that order. The sound coming from the shower indicates the location of the former but the latter was nowhere in sight. While it was not a taboo in Turks' training to strut about in your ex-enemy's bedroom naked, Reno did not intend to do that despite his considerable pride in his own physique. Struggling with the huge and weighty duvet to make himself at least semi-decent, Reno half stumbled to the shower's door.

Nearing the shower's door however, the duvet decided it had suffered enough abuse and conspired with the floor mat to teach Reno a lesson. Be it the devious intentions of maltreated fabrics or unusual clumsiness, Reno tripped just as he reached the threshold of the shower door. His eyes widened as he fall forward. Usually, his uncommon sense of balance and mako-enhanced agility will allow him to right himself but with the injuries he had suffered and the light headedness, he get only more tangled up in the duvet as the mat slide under his feet and like a slow movie, he sensed himself getting closer and closer to smashing his own face on the shower's door in a most ungainly and embarrassing manner even as a tinny squeak escaped betwixt his lips. It seemed though, that Life has a more mortifying experience in store for poor Reno than just a smashed nose for just at that moment, the door opened and Cloud Strife stood at the shower's entrance, stark naked and shell shocked as his ex enemy descended upon him and kissed him full on the lips with force.  

Sometimes people get a huge dividend from their shares of bad luck for their entire life. It appeared to be one of those days for Reno and Cloud as Cloud stumbled backward from the impact and slipped on a wayward sliver of soap. They then tumbled together onto the tiled shower floor into a very indecent heap, touching skin to skin as they had never touched another guy before. 

"Get off me! This is too much of a thank you even from the likes of you!"

"Who's thanking you? Where the hell are my clothes?"

Cloud was once again sharply reminded of his own nudity as Reno mentioned clothes. Both of them were turning a very pretty shade of red as they untangled their limbs and averted their eyes from each other's exposed body parts. Cloud stood up and slammed the shower door close when the last bits of naked Reno removed itself from the threshold. His heart was thumping in his chest when he pulled his usual black tank top over his head. He had opened the shower door in alarm earlier when he heard a thud and thought that Reno might be throwing up again. Cloud was puzzled by his acute anxiety but consoled himself by saying that he was merely worried about having to clean up his floor again and not about Reno choking on his own vomit.

Cloud dressed quickly and opened the door to a dazed looking Reno swathed in his duvet sitting on the floor. He watched as Reno's aquamarine eyes cleared and his body stiffened like a cobra being approached by another snake. Earlier on, he had applied basics first aid to Reno's injuries but even now, he could see the fatigue on Reno's face, the awful bruise on his temple and the pallor of his skin made him look more like a starved fugitive than the fighter he actually was or at least used to be. Without the helpful benefits of materia ever since they had become useless after Meteor, fighting had become a dangerous and painful business. Before Reno could say anything, Cloud answered his earlier question. "Your clothes are being hung out to dry. You puked on yourself just now. I don't think you want to sleep in your own vomit and I can't stand the stench either." 

"You've washed them."

"Yes, I did."

"You are very strange."

"Not more than you."

"I did not know you have a sense of humour."

"I did not know you have a penchant for kissing your saviours."

"That is an accident!" Reno hissed indignantly even as embarrassment painted his face scarlet. His head was starting to swim again with all that activity so he stumbled his way back onto the bed again.

"Are you alright?"

"Never been better."

"You are lying through your teeth. Anyway, I don't think you can find any of my clothes fitting. You can stay here tonight if you wish unless you rather I contact your..erm, colleagues. Where are all your Turks buddies anyway?"

"I can ask the same of you. Where's your Avalanche posse?" Reno asked irritatingly. 

"Everybody had a life of their own. There is no sense for us to continue sticking together." Cloud answered warily.

Cloud could sense that Reno was hiding something but who had no secrets especially people like themselves. Much as he was loathed to admit it, he probably had more in common with Reno than anybody else. Reno seemed about to wander off the land of the conscious anyway and Cloud much rather he do that voluntarily than involuntarily so he allowed Reno his peace, for the night.

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Minor amendments. Anyway, once again, I send out my plea for a beta reader.  
  



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